Records Management is Easy with the SmartNames Document Filing & Barcode System

Scanning documents into your case management system is one of the most effective ways to manage your documents.

Scanning documents into your case management system is one of the most effective ways to manage your documents, incoming mail and files, especially for law firms. But the process of scanning and organizing items can be a downright nightmare in terms of the amount of staff and the time it takes to implement and utilize.

The typical law firm usually has the following steps:

  1. 1. A staff member would open the mail, receive a document and/or receive a file.
  2. 2. A staff member then goes to the copy/scanning machine.
  3. 3. A staff member would scan each and every document, mail or file individually.
  4. 4. The scanned item would either go to a folder on a drive or be emailed to a staff member.
  5. 5. The scanned item would need to be renamed by the staff member.
  6. 6. The staff member would then move the scanned item to the appropriate folder within the clients file and corresponding folders.
  7. 7. The staff member must then advise the appropriate staff members assigned to the case.

It is a very time-consuming process considering all the various steps involved. Renaming every single document is one example of a task that must be done every time a new document has to be added to your system.

The SmartAdvocate® system eliminates most of the manual labor and many of the steps typically involved with adding scanned items.

SmartAdvocate® is the only case management system designed for personal injury law firms that includes a barcode records management system – and it is so simple and time-saving to use. SmartAdvocate® offers personal injury law firms this barcodesystem as part of its feature package.

With SmartAdvocate®, incoming mail and documents can be scanned with barcode pages in between them,and automatically filed in the right cases. There is no need to scan your items individually! PDF copies of all the incoming scanned items are electronically filed into their respective cases. Filenames of the scanned documents areautomatically renamed through the use of a special SmartAdvocate® feature called SmartNames that in addition to renaming these files, adds any other relevant information, including the case name and number, and date. (i.e. 070809-Smith, Steven-05-01-2013-medical records-bellevuehospital.pdf.)

The electronic file is displayed on the Documents screen of the case file; it is automatically linked to any parties or providers contact card (such as a hospital involved in the particular case).

SmartAdvocate® even takes the process a step further by automatically emailing copies of all documents to appropriate staff members assigned to the case. In addition to the attachment email includes a hyperlink to the document and the case file. No additional input is required from any of the users.

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